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High School—Freshman Year—Halloween
Kate's feet were practically throbbing as she stepped into her bedroom. It had been a long night, filled with horror movies, teeth-rotting candy, and a whimpering Kevin, whose face was practically attached to her shoulder the entire evening. Javier hadn't done much better, though he'd acted tough for Lanie's benefit. Kate had caught him squeezing his eyes closed at all the scary parts and had rolled her eyes at him.
Killer Clowns were so not scary. Neither were claw-handed gardeners. Or chainsaw killers. She'd found herself to be incredibly bored by these movies, having seen them thousands of times before and realized, early on, that none of these things actually existed.
Then, after the movie marathon, Javi had badgered them all into agreeing to a walk around the city—or at least in the vicinity of Kate's apartment building—to see if they could find the 'Zombie Walkers'. They practically took over the city on Halloween. Kate had only been hesitant because Kevin looked like he was about to wet his pants, but she'd gotten him to agree by promising that none of it would be real and if anybody tried to hurt him, she, Javi, and Lanie would have his back.
Only then did he agree.
So off they went…and spent three hours being chased around by 'zombies', laughing their asses off, and becoming zombies themselves. Even Kevin had been into it; he'd even taken one of the pop-off eyeballs from one of the zombies and put it over his own, grinning and waving for a picture.
And it was all great. Until things started to calm down and Kate could practically feel the blisters forming around her heels as she limped home, saying goodbye to all her friends and making plans for a nice hot bath and a Skype date with Castle, who was probably bored out of his mind with nothing to do on Halloween.
Peeling off her clothing and trading it for a bathrobe, she entered her bathroom, running a nice hot bubble bath as she perused her book selection (yes, she kept books in the bathroom for this purpose alone) and decided on the journal Castle had sent her, of five-minute mysteries he'd written. A lot of them were really obvious, but he'd included some puzzlers in there for her, knowing how much she loved a challenge.
She'd gotten through the first half of the book the first day she received it in the mail and decided, to make it last, that she would limit herself to two mysteries per bath. Now, she was three-quarters of the way done.
As she slipped into the hot water, Kate sighed in relief, picking up the book and flipping to the last dog-eared page. She was only halfway through it when her cell phone rang out on the sink counter.
Picking it up, she saw she had a text from Castle.
What are you wearing?
It was a joke. He'd sent her that particular text at least ten times since leaving for high school. And every time she had burst his bubble.
This time, however, she thought she'd have a little fun.
Not a stitch ;-D
She only had to wait ten seconds for her phone to ring and she answered it laughing.
"Really?" Castle asked, excitedly. Kate laughed, rolling her eyes.
"No!" she exclaimed.
She could practically see him deflate. "It's not nice to tease, Kate," he groused. Kate laughed again. "So how was your Halloween?" he asked, replacing pervy fourteen year old with excited five year old.
"Pretty good," Kate replied, putting the book aside and trying not to make a sound as she shifted in the water, standing and pulling her terrycloth robe around her and reaching to pull the plug in the train. She told Castle about her night with Lanie and the boys as she watched soapy water swirl down the drain. So much for her relaxing bath.
"You went on a zombie walk?" Castle exclaimed. "Without me? Kate, how could you?!"
"Sorry, Writer Boy," Kate replied, sitting down on the closed lid of the toilet, "but you weren't here. And Esposito practically dragged us out. We'll all go again next year, I promise."
"Okay," Castle said, but he still sounded forlorn. Kate tried to cheer him up.
"So how was your night? Did you stuff your mouth with candy?"
"I was about to, actually," Castle informed her. "I just got back to my dorm and Sir Stick-Up-His-Ass is still out at some Halloween party, so I thought it would be a good time to see how my girl is doing."
"Aww, that's sweet," Kate replied, smiling softly to herself.
"I also wanted to know if you were willing to send me those snicker doodles your mom makes."
"You're using me to get to my mom's cookies?" Kate asks, teasingly. "What? I'm not enough for you anymore or something."
"What? No! I-I mean, yes! Of course you're enough for me, Kate! I just…I—are you laughing?"
She was. Hysterically. She nearly fell off the toilet, she was laughing so hard. "You are so easy!" she snorted, shaking her head.
"You're mean!" Castle whined.
"Pshh, you love me, anyway."
"And now I'm starting to wonder why," Castle teased. The line went silent. "Kate? Kate, that was only a joke, you know."
"I know," Kate replied, quietly, "I just…sometimes I feel like you're too good for me."
"What? Balderdash!" Castle exclaimed, making Kate snort.
"Balderdash?" she asked, giggling.
"You heard me," Castle confirmed. "Have you looked in a mirror lately, Kate? You're gorgeous! You've got great hair, a beautiful smile, flawless skin, and you're tall!"
"You like your women tall, do you?" Kate teased.
"I like you tall," Castle replied, seriously. "I like you tall, short, thin, chubby…anyway I can have you because I still believe that you chose a complete goober like me to be with. And I am so grateful that you did, Kate. You have no idea how grateful I am. I just wish…I just wish I didn't have to tell you that every time we spoke."
"You don't—"
"Oh, but I do," Castle insisted. "Because until you start believing it, I am going to tell you how amazing and just…extraordinary you are. Always."
Kate was silent for a moment, feeling happy tears stinging at her eyes.
"I love you," she practically whispered. But he heard it.
"I love you, too," he replied. "I always will."
Kate snorted. "You can't know that."
"Oh, yes I can!" Castle replied. "Didn't you realize you were dating a psychic?"
Kate chuckled. "Oh really?" Kate asked. "If you're a psychic, then what am I thinking right now?"
"You're thinking, 'I wish this goofball would let me get back to my bath so I can relax.'"
"Who said I was taking a bath?" Kate replied, blushing slightly, grateful that he couldn't see her.
"Come on," Castle replied. "It's past nine, you've had a long day, and you're feet probably hurt from chasing around zombies all day…there's no way you wouldn't take a bath after all that."
Kate grinned, once again in awe of how well he knew her. "Well, I'm not taking a bath," she said, "but I was when you called. I actually just drained the tub; now I have to take a shower."
"Does this mean you're naked?" Pervy fourteen year old was back.
"Goodbye, Castle," Kate said, rolling her eyes.
"No, wait!" Castle begged.
"I'm waiting," Kate replied, placing one hand on her hip.
"I love you," Castle said, his voice dripping with sincerity. Kate grinned.
"I love you, too, Goober," she replied. "Always."
Hours later, as she drifted off to sleep, she was still grinning.
REVIEWS!
And before anybody asks, yes, kids in NYC do tend to stay out and about pretty late. I actually spoke to friends FROM the city as research for this chapter and she told me that, at fourteen, she was taking subways home at midnight with her friends and her parents were fine with it so long as they knew where she was at all times.
